Some low-k materials can not be applied to integrated circuit fabrication because of cracking issues. One attempt to increase cracking thresholds of low-k materials is to use etch-stop architecture however this decays the RC performance. Another method has been to change the precursors used to form the low-k materials. Generally, the low-k film is deposited and then cured to increase the cracking threshold.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,338 B1 to Liu et al. describes an N2 plasma treatment of a low-k layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,216 to Ko et al. describes a plasma treatment of a low-k layer.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,103,601 to Lee et al. and 6,028,015 to Wang et al. describe other plasma treatments of low-k layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,901 to Hopper et al. describes a plasma treatment to remove photoresist over low-k materials.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,153,512 to Chang et al., 6,171,951 B1 to Lee et al. and 6,043,147 to Chen et al. describe related low-k treatments.